Atdtda31: You're alive, 869-871

[Paul Nightingale]

The new section begins with another apparition. Cyprian not only sees
Yashmeen "expensively turned out", but ("while making this inventory")
deconstructs her appearance, recalling for the reader gambling successes in
59.7, where "the Law of Deterministic Insufficiency" allowed her to deal
with her fears regarding Vlado (862). And Cyprian's own reference to Vlado
("I heard about ...", 869) recalls "Yashmeen began to hear reports of a
shootout ..." etc at the beginning of 59.7 (862).

The reader is here with Cyprian, but also there with Yashmeen. In the
current scene, her appearance emphasises, shot/reverse-shot, "how far from
even presentable he must look" (869). Moreover, the exhaustive account of
consumption (her purchases, his devouring of appearance) is at odds with his
inability to read her response to his presence, the refusal of the text to
grant him such insight, eg: "difficult to say with how much enthusiasm",
followed by "... had been smiling, but now ..." etc.

Cyprian began the chapter and previous section seeking Yashmeen, but he
found Theign instead. Here, he "[finds] himself struggling to keep his eyes
averted" from the "battered and rangy individual" who accompanies her: the
detailed account of Yashmeen's appearance serves as over-compensation,
perhaps. And so to "pale men with tastes he understood" (870) and a return
to Trieste, where he tries and fails to avoid thought of Yashmeen. The "pale
men" have paid for the visit to Fabrizio's he sought as the chapter opened
on 864; so, having achieved "a more combative look" (870), he has overcome
the "far from even presentable" appearance that confronted Yashmeen and
inspired the "inventory" on 869. One might suppose he wants to avoid
thinking, not so much of Yashmeen, as of her regarding him, a suppression of
the reverse shot. Hence, "what he wanted back was last week, the week
before" (870).

In Trieste Cyprian stands in for Vlado and the section concludes with
consensus: "No argument that Theign must be killed." For Cyprian the
language barrier is less important than his failure to read Yashmeen on the
previous page.